


That Can't Be Comfortable

by Dikhotomia



Series: Edeleth Week 2k19 [3]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Edeleth Week (Fire Emblem), F/F, Fishing, Reading, that's all I got for tags folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 18:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20855960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "It's quiet, save for the hiss of the waterfall and the distant drone of conversation and Byleth sits on the edge of the dock, deft hands working to finish preparing the fishing rod she holds balanced between her knees. It's been a while since she's been able to sit down like this, to just stop and enjoy a moment of stillness outside of late nights and early mornings."OrByleth goes fishing and Edelgard joins her (sort of)





	That Can't Be Comfortable

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts today are 'back to back' and kinda sorta 'learning'
> 
> Unbeta'd--you know the drill by now.

It's quiet, save for the hiss of the waterfall and the distant drone of conversation and Byleth sits on the edge of the dock, deft hands working to finish preparing the fishing rod she holds balanced between her knees. It's been a while since she's been able to sit down like this, to just stop and enjoy a moment of stillness outside of late nights and early mornings.

The rod feels right in her hands as she casts the line out and settles in for the wait.

And wait she does, until she hears the sound of boots on the wood behind her, turning her head to find Edelgard approaching, her arms full with a book and the lunch Byleth didn't show up for. Her Emperor is dressed down today, a simple shirt and slacks, boots and hair tied in the side pony she'd come to love. She smiles and Edelgard matches it with one of her own, holding out the wrapped sandwich.

"I figured you might be hungry," she says as Byleth takes it from her and moves over to make room. "So I made us lunch. It's not much but, I tried."

"Thank you," Byleth replies, balancing the rod against the bend of her knee as she unwraps the sandwich and takes a bite. She can almost imagine the sight of Edelgard in the kitchen despite all the people who would tell her to not worry about it, selecting what she needed and setting about the task anyway.

_I learned all this at the academy_, she imagines her saying, proud and a little annoyed, _so I might as well apply it_.

"Is something funny?" Edelgard asks beside her, leaning fully into her line of sight and close enough Byleth twitches back out of surprise. "You have this silly grin on your face."

"No," she says quickly, shoving another bite of sandwich in her mouth to avoid further engaging the suspicion she sees written all over Edelgard's narrowed gaze.

"I see." Edelgard drops it then, book set beside her while she focuses on her food, the silence falling back over them.

Byleth eats and watches her line, eyes tracing down to where it disappears into the water, undisturbed but for the ripples from the waterfall. It's like old times, being back here at the monastery, but so many of the faces are new, with new professors and new lessons.

But all of them had come back to see one another just like they promised, days of laughter and playing ribbing, of seeing who it was that had finally paired off with who. There was no sadness, no weight that hung over them despite their levity to remind them there was still a war to be fought. It was just real, honest happiness.

They all parted again with the same promise, in five years we'll come back and do this again, and again, and again no matter what.

Now only Edelgard and Byleth remained of those that had come, spending an extra day before starting the ride back to Enbarr in the morning. So Byleth had made the choice to come out to fish at a place that had come to be one of her favorite spots, surprised that it had remained mostly unchanged even after everything that had happened.

The line twitches and Byleth realizes Edelgard had left, but the book still on the dock and the missing napkins let her know it was only temporary. "We'll have fish for tonight," she says when she hears the other's steps on the wood again, concentrating on pulling up her catch. "My treat, since you made lunch."

"A meal cooked by the professor? Now that is a treat." The book is replaced with a bucket in her periphery as Edelgard speaks and Byleth snorts a laugh, giving one last tug and bringing the fish out of the water.

"Come on, it's not that rare," she rebukes, dropping the still wriggling fish in the bucket beside her. "I used to cook all the time!"

"Yes," Edelgard agrees and Byleth hears her behind her, the shuffle of fabric as she sits before her back thumps lightly against her own. "But then you stopped once we moved to Enbarr and other people were there to do it for you."

"True," she mutters as she baits the hook again and recasts, a little more careful now that Edelgard is where she is. "It was hard to get used to, you know."

A page rustles and Edelgard hums, the vibration from it buzzing across her spine. "I imagine so, but you adapted quite well."

"Because it meant I could stay with you." And in the end that was all she had wanted, from the very moment she really got to see Edelgard as everything she was to the last battle they had fought. All she could think was how she wanted to be with her until the day both of them passed on.

"How sentimental, my teacher," Edelgard teases, head leaning against her shoulder. "But I feel the same."

"_Now_ whose the sentimental one?" She fires back, laughing as Edelgard's boots dig in and the other woman shoves into her, bending them both into a much less comfortable position. "Okay okay, please let me up it's going to be hard to fish like this!"

Her Emperor concedes with a huff and they right themselves.

"What are you reading, anyway?" Byleth asks after a few minutes had passed of no bites and the occasional shuffle of a page. "I hope it's not work."

"It's not work," Edelgard affirms. "It's the novel Ignatz based his recent painting on. I was curious and since the library here had it, I decided to read it." Another page shifts and so does Edelgard, slow and sighing.

Byleth pulls up another fish around the time Edelgard finishes the first chapter.

They stay like that until the sun dips low on the horizon and Byleth had filled the bucket almost to the brim with various sizes and types of fish. "Hey El," she says, turning her head when she gets nothing but silence in return.

"El?" She tries again, blinking and realizing that the other woman had fallen asleep like that, back to back, dipped against her collarbone and book forgotten in her lap. _That can't be comfortable_, she thinks, shifting her shoulder and jostling the other woman. "Time to wake up."

She does, inhaling and sitting forward with a groan. "....What time is it? Ugh, my neck..."

"Dinner time," Byleth comments, turning a little to rub the back of Edelgard's neck. "Probably at least around six."

"We should get inside before the dining hall becomes too chaotic, then."

So they gather Byleth's fishing rod and the bucket and Edelgard's book and head inside.

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on [Tumblr](http://dikhotomia.tumblr.com/) and or [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/modulatechaos)


End file.
